Inside The Core Box & Beyond For Games Workshop’s Warcry!
July 15, 2019 by brennon
Games Workshop has dropped a bloomin' massive update on what is coming for Warcry, the skirmish game set within the world of Age Of Sigmar. You'll be able to snag yourself a pre-order for the game this coming weekend.
Watch Out For Pre-Orders At Store.OnTableTop
Warcry is to Age Of Sigmar what Kill Team is to Warhammer 40,000, offering up a skirmish experience which can be played in no time at all on a smaller board. As they defined it in the video above this article, Warcry is like a game of Age Of Sigmar with no turn one, diving straight into the action which is frantic and brutal with blood and bone being sent sprawling across the board from the word go.
What's In The Set?
The set above comes with everything you need to get started in the game. You get two warbands, the Iron Golems...
...and the Untamed Beasts. Both of these warbands are not tied to a particular god from the Chaos pantheon and instead follow a creed of warfare that defines their tribe.
For example, the Iron Golems are the weaponsmiths of Archaon's mighty armies. They revel in the forging of weapons and armour, tuning their bodies to become living weapons. You'll notice Ogors and Duardin amongst their ranks too.
The Untamed Beasts are focused on the primal thrill of battle. They are driven to be as dangerous as the wild animals that prowl the realm of Chaos around the Varanspire. Talking of wild animals, the set also comes with a band of wandering creatures that you might encounter in your skirmishes or indeed enthral into service. You'll get these deadly screeching Raptorx...
...and the cunning looking Harpies which hang from blasted ruins, looking for their next prey. I love the aesthetic already for Warcry, giving us a truly grimdark look at the realm of Chaos and the characters that inhabit it. Not all Chaos tribes are going to follow the same stringent doctrines of the Chaos Gods so it's good to see a range of figures and monsters which sit firmly in the 'Undivided' area of worship.
As well as all of the creatures and characters here you'll also get yourself some terrain and a double-sided board to play on. The terrain is meant to pack a board full of interesting gameplay elements, allowing you to run and leap around the crumbling ruins.
It looks like good fun to play around and shows off the once proud Order structures that once stood within this realm. Now they have been tainted and reclaimed by Chaos for Archaon's unfathomable machinations. I really like the fallen head of Sigmar they have turned into a little watchtower!
Additionally, the box will come with all of the tokens and cards you need in order to play the game plus the Core Book which contains all of the new rules for Warcry. According to the designers, there are millions of combinations of quests and scenarios you can be sent on due to the way cards are drawn for each encounter. I like the sound of that!
Beyond The Starter Set
Stepping beyond what's offered as part of the Starter Set you'll find that the team at Games Workshop are going to be expanding Warcry with new terrain elements to give you alternative environments to play in.
Above you'll find the Corpsewrack Mausoleum which gives you what looks like a new double-sided board and also some new terrain which has been revamped from its old Warhammer Fantasy Battles days.
You'll also find expanded rules for using warbands which are not serving the Chaos Gods. Here is a rundown of the different warbands from other Grand Alliances that you'll be able to call on as you head off in search of glory on the battlefield.
Each set you pick up for these alternative warbands will contain ability and fighter cards for every model you can use in these warbands. Because Warcry is a very small scale game it means that a single box of models should give you enough models for a full 1000 point warband to use in the game.
I think this is a great idea and means that you're immediately able to get stuck into some adventures on the tabletop with Warcry without having to buy much beyond these cards and the Core Box is you want. This is also just the tip of the iceberg and you will be able to pick up more warbands in the future as Games Workshop develop the game.
Different Flavours Of Chaos
As I mentioned above, the new warbands give us a look at the different ways the tribes worship the Chaos Gods. One of the warbands which was previewed over the weekend completes the array of options open to those playing Warcry, the Cypher Lords.
With a focus towards perhaps the Lord Of Change, these Asian inspired warriors look to be a joy for someone who wants to get stuck in with bright colours when painting! I really like what they've done here and can't wait to see what people do with the warband.
If you'd like to see the rest of the warbands revealed for Warcry you can check them out HERE.
So, are you going to be drawn into Warcry?
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I have delayed my birthday prezzies for two months to be able to get this. (50 by the way… you are never too old for games – or to get caught up in the hype anyway!) The models are fantastic! I hope the game play meets the high expectations, and going by GW’s recent releases – shadespire and killteam – it should be.
Kill team eh? I was hoping more for a Mordheim vibe or even a “Fantasy Necromunda” instead of the kill team experience from this one. I seem to remember them mentioning Warcry having a robust campaign system months ago. The Mordheim and Necromunda campaign systems were so good that people still talk about them from time to time but as for Kill Team…. did it even have a campaign system? I honestly don’t know but, if it did, nobody ever mentions it which all goes to show where the focus of Kill Team’s players was really (and probably the mindset… Read more »
There is a campaign system in this. It’s tailored specifically to your warband and you will advance for every game you play as you try and impress Archaon.
No dwarf faction yet ‘though. Just 3 variants of greenskins :(.
Just the first set of releases. I’m sure Duardin will drop in the near future.
Either that or the stout hearted dwarven folk do not hear the call of Chaos! One chaos dwarf doesn’t count. He’s lost already. It does feel like a small gang of trollslayers on a death quest would fit right in ‘though as they stomp across the tainted chaos wastelands looking for something that’ll try to kill them.
do trollslayers still exist within AoS ?
The fyreslayers are more their own faction as opposed to dwarves with a deathwish.
Context of that box looks really good. Cypher Lords warband looks really good as well and has me tempted.
Box looks nice and jam packed. Think I could see myself getting drawn in at some point down the line.
I like the idea of a fantasy skirmish game. It might have been something to get me playing something GW but thee setting just kills it for me. I understand that people like this “this is the harshest environment imagable, the very hard of chaos where only the most bad ass can kill for the glory of the ever chosen.” but for gamers not into (or cannot get into the role of) the fighting for fightings sake to be the best and do more fighting. Why could this not have been set in the bit just after chaos have won.… Read more »
They’ve mentioned that the goblins aren’t fighting for fighting’s sake; they’re fighting to swipe as many glass bottles as they can.
It seems to me that this has elements of both Kill Team and Necromunda. It seems to share the same nihilistic brutality of Necromunda where you have all thses gangs fighting each other over basically nothing. The gangs have no concept of the wider universe in which they exist or that their existence are utterly meaningless. I really like the look of it, I could even take or leave support for the other Age of Sigmar factions, the warbands designed specifically for Warcry seem much more interesting.
I think this looks better than a Mordheim remake.
I hope there is more to it (narrative wise) than an AoS version of Killteam.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the warbands make it to AoS as allies, because we’ve seen the same happen with the teams from Underworld (Zarbag and Molog come to mind).
‘Warcry, the skirmish game set within the world of Age Of Sigmar’
Wot? Another one? And anyway I thought Age of Sigmar IS a skirmish game.
The masses of units that people bring to 6×4 tables would beg to differ.
It depends on your definition of “skirmish”. There is, as far as I can see, two definitions of skirmish game. One is a game fought with models in skirmish formation, that is not rank and file formations. The other is a small scale game where the forces involved would not be large enough to be considered a true battle (not that there is a hard and fast definition of that), usually between 5 and 15 miniatures per side.
I think for most wargamers skirmish is a handful of models and anything more is more of a proper battle.
the skirmish tag is often confusing.
Some games use it to indicate ‘not rank&file mass battle’ and others use it more in the (expected) meaning (a handful of models)
I wouldn’t be surprised if the warbands eventually grow into normal AoS armies though.
I see someone either haven’t looked at the game at all since announcement, or was lied to by the Upset Brigade.
AoS is as much a skirmish game as 40k is, my fish elf army at 2000 points has a big monster, six cavalry and 50 infantry. which granted, seems like nothing compared to WFB’s massed blocks of base decorations, but can hardly be described as skirmish…and fish elves are fairly elite army.
Ooh that’s a box of fun great for chaos/hell battles.
Starter set is rumoured to be £100, which isn’t bad for the amount of stuff you get in it. I really like the deep sea diver, Khorne, Adeptus Mechanicus and Blood Bowl look of the Iron Golems.
It’s going to be 130 Euro although my favourite 40k webshop has it at 110,50 (they’re +/- 15% discount by default) …
It’s a bit more expensive than Killteam
They also have a rulebook as a stand-alone item.
It’s never going to be as nuts as the campaigns in Slaves to Darkness (the 80s one) but I like the setting. The crow guys look good, as do the Tzeentchy fellas. ??
Will the rulebook and tokens, etc. be offered separately? I’m more partial to the non-Chaos factions myself. Although, if the price is reasonable enough, I could be persuaded to spring for the box.
I would assume they will be separate yes.
If it’s anything like Kill Team… the starter box will have a limited run and when that sells out you will have to buy the stuff separately.
Buying the rules, tokens and terrain will probably cost almost as much as buying the starter box. I’m not overly keen on the golems, but the harpies, raptors and untamed beasts and good for RPG’s… as is the terrain (which will also get used for Kill Team, Necromunda, Sigmar and 40k). As for factions… Souls Wars provided me with Stormcast space marines (meh) and Nighthaunt…. Plus I’ve been looking for an excuse to buy some Daughters of Khaine… and this is as good a reason as any… and I don’t have to spend a fortune. Someone is going to be… Read more »
I’m finding myself unexpectedly liking this. Didn’t think I would as I’m not a huge fan of the Chaos stuff that GW has served out hitherto. (I did flirt with Khorne for a bit with early AoS but it never really grabbed me). However, the variety of these new chaos factions is a bit sexy I must admit. And the terrain has always been the main attraction. If it doesn’t play like a dog there’s a possibility I may be convinced. Maybe.
For most of my life I have been really ambivalent about Chaos. For me it all changed when Age of Sigmar was first released. The way they have started focusing on the followers of each God from the bottom up has completely changed Chaos. Instead of seeing god specific nights with very generic Marauders each God now has their followers and they have a the throughout the whole army, they have a very cult like or tribal feel to them. Warcry is just taking that to the next level, showing us all kinds of different tribes and cults.
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🙂 Its like the first time I saw Mordheim 🙂